The Council Has Spoken!! This Week’s Watchers Council Results – 12/02/11

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast and the results are in for this week, carved eternally in the akhasic records of cyberspace.

This week’s winner, Joshuapundit’sRats in the Kitchen: A Parable is a parable indeed. Rather than try to describe it, I’ll just provide you with a slice, let you head to the link to read the whole thing and allow you to draw your own meaning from it:

Once, there was a man who had to deal with rats when he had a major infestation in his home.
The rats’ normal environment became unable to support them all, and they began coming down from the hills looking for new digs… and decided they liked the man’s house. They were perfectly happy to hunker down in the attic, garage and basement with free access to the goodies in the kitchen and pantry. And once they had moved in and saw what rich booty was to be had, they were determined to take over.

At first the problem wasn’t evident. The man would see an occasional rodent scurrying around in the basement, and being a live and let live sort, it never bothered him too much.

As more and more rats began showing up, their presence became much more noticeable. The man made an effort to understand the rats and their needs. The thought even crossed the man’s mind that he and his neighbors, by living in the area, owed it to the rats to try and coexist peacefully.After all weren’t they entitled to live on the planet too?

The man talked to a local expert on rats, who owned a pest control business. The expert warned him that he had to get rid of the rats now, and act decisively when things were at an early stage, or he would be faced with a major problem in the future. The man listened politely, but thought `well, this guy has his own agenda…after all, he makes his living scaring people about rats. I don’t see it as any kind of major problem yet…nothing that can’t be handled.’

So he tried what he thought was the most compassionate way out, taking bread and putting it out in the fields, figuring that the rats would be satisfied with that and leave. No luck..having learned to enjoy the basement and access to the goodies in the pantry and the kitchen within, they weren’t content to scrounge in the fields any more. Next he tried purchasing a number of those electronic gizmos that claim to drive rats away using high frequency sound. Not only didn’t they work, but the rats became even more blatant and bold. The high-pitched electronic sound drew them like an Islamic prayer call or a rock concert.

And as the rats became more bold, they began coming into the house at will. And their numbers continued to increase.

In our non-Council category, we had the unusual situation of a three way tie, which means I had to pick the winner as Watcher. And it wasn’t easy choosing between The Passing Parade’sOWS IT GOING, AND IT SHOULD GO FASTER submitted by Simply Jews, a hilarious send up of the OWS movement versus small town America; Sultan Knish’sThe Myth of the Arab Spring Underdog submitted by The Noisy Room, the Sultan’s fine exposition on why the West’s sympathy for the Arab Spring protesters is largely misplaced; and Caroline Glick’sCalling Things By Their Proper Names submitted by The Political Commentator, in which the always scintillating Ms. Glick writes on how President Obama’s Middle East policies are shuffling the cards there – and not in our favor.

All three of these pieces are must reads, frankly. But I have to admit, still being indignant over how the mayor and city council of Los Angeles endorsed the OWS movement there based strictly on Democrat party politics and cheerfully allowed them to break the city’s laws with impunity, I simply had to give The Passing Parade the nod. It struck home, you might say.

Los Angeles’ almost entirely Blue municipal government will spend nearly $1 million in taxpayer dollars to remove what amounted to a large, rancid trash dump created by the OWSers next to City Hall, pay for the police and other personnel involved and reconstruct a public park. They have no respect for the city they’re in charge of or the people they govern whatsoever.